Face Coverings in Patients with Allergies and Asthma
Some of our patients have expressed concern about how wearing a face covering may impact their breathing. Our professional organization, the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, has published a helpful document available here: https://www.aaaai.org/Aaaai/media/MediaLibrary/PDF%20Documents/Libraries/Mask-Eng.pdf
A few points to emphasize:
- Wearing a face covering is very important to protect people around you, including those who may be at high risk for complications from COVID-19, especially in light of the high rate of asymptomatic individuals who can still infect others.
- People with allergies and asthma may more easily spread the disease because of their baseline tendency towards sneezing and coughing, making it all the more important that people with allergies and asthma wear a face covering to limit these exposures to other people.
- If you believe that your underlying allergy or asthma symptoms are making it more difficult to use a face covering, the answer is NOT that you should avoid the face covering, but rather that you need to discuss your symptoms with us, so we can improve symptom control.
- There is generally no harm to wearing a face covering for the vast majority of people, including people with asthma who have good control of their disease.